Mandalay

After leaving Inle behind we headed for the warmer climate of Mandalay. We flew with Yangon Air - short sweet flight. We took a taxi (which if you paid in dollars was3 x the price of the local currency!) and detoured to a famous 1.2km bridge made from teak. Once there we were met by young children with gifts to sell and also about 1000 flies. There were also locals selling owls and rare birds. We took a few photos and continued to Mandalay.

We climbed Mandalay Hill slightly too early. It's quite a dirty place so after chatting to some monks we headed back down. There are lots of Stupas and shrines allong the climb.

Unfortunately during the night Chris then became sick with terrible stomach cramps and diaorea. He also had a burning fever and was wrapped up saying he was freezing.

We got some tablets from a traveller in the next room who's brother is a doctor. The next day was sleep for Chris. I wandered around the markets saying hello to people. And was stared at quite a lot.

Mandalay is a small but very busy city. Its very dusty and noisy with broken and messy roads. There is an alarm that has a siren as lovely as any modern day ringtone. It is then followed by chimes and denotes the hour of the day. Every hour day and night! Lovely. Our hotel the Royal City Hotel has a garden on the roof where you can take breakfast and watch the beautiful sun rise in the morning over the misty and busy city. For a few hours every morning you can hear songs being sung that echo loudly around. Really quite nice.

The next day although Chris was still ill we managed a half day boat trip to Mingun so see many temples and stupas. It was a really nice morning spare all the terds floating pass the boat! The locals were lovely, they live on tourism selling paintings, clothing and trinkets.

On return we took another walk around the markets and stopped for ice cream.

In the evening we went to a lovely and expensive (in burmese terms) restaurant.

but Uh oh.... you've guess it now Chris and I were both really sick. Thankfully no fever but we both had terrible stomachs.

So our plans to head for more hill trekking and cold freezing nights in Hispaw have been cancelled. We have decided enough is enough and that we want to leave Mandalay. There was no point in going to Hispaw as it is no place to be ill.

We also wanted to take a 9-12 hour boat trip south to Bagan but we have cancelled that too in favour of flying. We will now leave Myanmar on our previous date of 30th Jan.

Tonight we arrive in Bagan and our hotel boasts a pool! We will spend a few days there cycling around lots of vey old temples and then we plan to head to Yangoon and explore that.

Where Next?

Our initial and excitable ideas of going to Borneo and diving Sipadan are not going to happen. It is out of season and a lady we met on our travels said they are having an extra bad bout of bad weather. As is Maylaysia.

We have been searching to find good weather in Asia and were toying with the idea of going to the Phillipines, but Chris isn't too fussed. So to try and stay with good weather we are going to stay in Thailand and head back to Koh Lanta and hopefully dive with Lanta Fun Divers again.

Koh Lanta was our back up plan. Its a shame we won't be travelling to new waters but it will be nice all the same.

Lots of love to everyone.

Steve and Rach - hope you had a nice holiday.

Love Anna and Chris

Myanmar

Hi Guys

We arrived safely in Myanmar on 18th January. We are enjoying it very much and are going to extend our travel time here by a few days. So we expect to be leaving about 3rd or 4th Feb.

As soon as we arrived we took a 20 hour bus journey leaving at lunchtime and arriving at Inle Lake at sunrise the next day. The Air Con bus didnt really have air con, and the windows could not be opened. The buses are also smaller with smaller seats and ailes! Great fun. It was 31 0C and then at nightime it dropped to 10 oC.

So it is taking us while to get used to the weather.

Yesterday we went trekking up a mountain and did 20 K in 8 hours. It was worth it as the views and the people were fantasic.

We love Myanmar, the people are the most friendly and honest we have met yet.

Lots of blogs and billions of photos to follow in feb.

Love to everyone.
Happy Birthday to Michelle and to Sarah Bell who both have birthdays this week.

Love Anna and Chris

Bangkok 2

Visas Visas visas! We returned to collect our visas from the travel agency to find they didn't have them! The reason Anna's occupation is camera assistant and so they held them back and wanted lots more information. Silly me! office worker next time!

t was also confusing that the embassy close at 3pm yet the Thais can still get Visas made till 5.30 pm! Fun and games.

We moved rooms from 308 to room 304. Its lovely!..... but the air con leaked overnight all over the sofa! I think the building is old and although the rooms are cool they could do with a little better maintenance.

We have really been enjoying chilling out in this room with music, internet and Dvds - which is just what you need after a long hot day battling through Bangkok.

We have had much fun trying to get Meter Taxis around town. Its fine heading in and then when you want to return the drivers just drive off without you as they want to run their taxis with the meters off to make more cash! But we have done well with this battle as our hotel is near the Sky Train so we just walk and take that if we can't get a taxi.

We basically have just been shopping, people watching and tasting street food. Instead of visiting tourist sites.

Chris has been fighting with mosquitos overnight so now we are armed with everything from sprays, coils to electrical things. He has a bite on his finger that looks a little scarey. We bought him antibiotics as we are afraid what might happen if he gets to Myanmar and it gets worse!!!

Burma

I'm a little nervous about entering Myanmar but I'm excited too. I'm really looking forward to tasting the food and seeing the temples. I'd love to go to the national parks as they have amazing wildlife - but I'm not sure if that will be possible as you have to write somewhere? to get permission. they have an amazing little dear there called Leaf dear and its only 60cm tall! awwww.

It may be a while before we get to post again. So lots of love to everyone.

Big hugs to Chris's Family Joyce, sam, Sean, Chloe, Elle, June and Martin as they had a funeral yesterday. Love and best wishes to you.

Here are the flowers we bought for Nana Cynth

xxxxx

Bangkok

Yesterday 15th Jan we flew into hot and sunny Bangkok.

We have had to change a few of our flights and allow 3 days in Bangkok as we were unable to get our Visa for Myanmar unless we did this.

We arrived and headed straight for the Myanmar Embassy to get our visas ourselves. We arrived as it was closed for lunch. So we waited and then joined about 60 people all waiting for it to open. When it did it was a little chaotic. We filled in forms and joined ques. There were many Thai people there from travel agents making visas for tourists. They all seemed to get their visa made no problem. It then became apparant to us that the tourists doing it for themselves were in an endless que and it was taking 20 mins to process 1 person with only 1 member of staff doing it. With 1 hour left before they close and about 20 people infront of us we quit and went to the nearest travel agent. The Visa there was twice the price £40. instead of £20.

So we had to do it that way or face the whole of today waiting in ques again!!! Good business for the locals - not so good for us!

I have been trying to stay in Reflections Hotel (see links) since finding it last year on the internet. It is a hotel that has had each room decorated by a different artist. Its bright pink, full of crazy toys and artefacts. We finally managed to stay here. here is our room

But unfortunately we awoke this morning to loud intollerable building work!!! not happy. So today we will move rooms. More photos to follow.

We are off to shop at the huge MBK center today.

bye for now

Tsunami In Khao Lak

Khao Lak was severely effected by the tsunami Boxing Day 2004. On our first few days of arrival there we wanted to see how well it had recovered and the effect it had had on the town.

2 years on Khao Lak is still developing heavily and building work is everywhere. big hotels are being built. There are beach bungalows all the way along the beach already. The locals however have small shanty houses built close to the hotels. They are made from corogated iron and are extremely basic.

There is now a Tsunami Warning system in place. There are loud speakers and there are signs everywhere that you are entering Tsunami area and there are directions for escape routes to safe areas.

The town is doing well and tourism is busy.

On the beach there are trees covered in Photographs with poems of loved ones that were lost. Most photos and memorials were for tourists that had lost their lives and not the locals. Further out of town we found a large ship 1 1/2 km from the sea. It had many flowers placed by it.We also found another ship that had stopped just feet in front of knocking down a community centre. It remains there as a reminder of the events that happend. We went to the Tsunami museum that was mainly geographical information about how they form. It did not contain personal info about the effect on Khao Lak.

We went to the cemetary and to the memorial for the Tsunami. Really it is amazing to see how quick a recover people and business had made. The people there are still lovely, sweet and super friendly.

The Tsunami has also had an affect on the sea. We dived a wreck called The Boonsung. It used to be fully intact but is now broken up into many pieces.

The Memorial site.

Similan Island Livaboard Photos

Us on board the Manta Queen Livaboard boat

Look Manta Ray!

Clown Trigger Fish, Yellow Frogfish,Soft Corals.

Octopus, Honeycomb Morray, Sea Horse

Porcelin Crab, Nemo!

Sunrise on the boat. Scorpian Fish. Granite boulders underwater. The lovely Chefs having a tiny break from cooking.

An hour break from the boat. We climbed to top rock on Donald Duck Bay. (picture in previous post over/underwater shot). The climb was not so easy without any shoes on the hot surface of the rock!

Chris checking his depth and also his best Manta Photo - which puts all of mine safely into 2nd place!!

Leopard Shark
As you can guess there are another 1000 photos but these are some of the better ones.

Livaboard in the Similan Islands

Hi
We have returned safely from our Livaboard trip to the Similan Islands and also to Koh Bon and Richeuleu Rock. We were there for 4 days and nights and did 14 dives.

We had a fantastic time. The diving was superb. The weather was great and the food was constant! We met some really nice people.Most of them were couples travelling Asia like we did last march. So there was lots to discuss.

We saw tonnes of fish life including the best experience of Manta Rays. We saw a huge school of Batfish. frogfish, Stonefish, a Sea Horse, GhostPipe fish, Lepoard Shark, Octopus.

The Similan Islands are made of huge granite boulders that make beautiful dive sites and wonderful looking Islands.

Last night we went out with 6 of the people fromthe trip and had a great time watching a local band do a Rock performance of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. It was hilarious.

We are currently staying at Khao Lak Countryside Resort.
http://krabidir.com/klcountryside/index.htm

We have had to alter our plans a little as we have struggled to get our Myanmar Visa.
So we have 2 days to chill in Khaolak -hopefully go jungle trekking tomorrow or kayaking.

We fly to Bangkok on monday for 3 days and hope to stay at Reflections Hotel. We will make our visas and do touristy things.

We then fly into Burma (Myanmar) for 2 weeks of travel. We expect little time to be spent on the internet there.

The rest of the trip is unknown but we are currently discussing going to Borneo, Sabah - Sipidan Islands and Mabul. For diving and Jungle fun. But it is rainy season there so we are still to make a decission.

Looking forward to a Thai massage this avo!

Hope everyone is well. Dad thanks for the fish info -i couldnt find it in a book anywhere. Beautiful fish.

Nan I hope your eye is improving well.
Chloe - give us a smile. hope scholl is going well.

Bye for now
Annaand Chris